Puck Soup - Firing NHL Coaches

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

The boys do a temperature check on the coaches' hot seats around the NHL, from the Buffalo Sabres to John Tortorella to the Canadian Division teams. Plus, a look at the NHL trade deadline big board, whether the Leafs are for real, the Wild are fun, who misses the playoffs in the East, mini-golf in Canada, the legacy of "Happy Gilmore," our most unpopular hockey theories and the best and worst Eddie Murphy films. Sponsored by Manscaped and Violent Gentlemen!   

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wischinski of ESPN, and I am doing this podcast from a hotel room in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I fell asleep last night to the globe. of an R.B. Sign. The Lincoln Star is of the

USHL. You can stop into a game. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. See, I know prospect stuff now, so something to think about. Sean McHugh from The Athletic. I've never been to Nebraska. Have you ever been to

Alberta? Because then you've been to Nebraska. Okay. Yeah, as I mentioned on the show last week, we were moving back to New York. We are not paying to move the car back to New York. So we were driving the car and all of the things that we didn't want to put on the moving truck to New York and, you know, stopping along the way to see some family and stuff. So did Moab, Utah, which is where you find Arches National Park Labor?

I didn't there. I know. Oh, you've been there, Sean? I have, yeah. Oh, fantastic. Isn't it cool? It was. I kind of like that.

And that was like in my teenage years where I was tough to impress. But I thought that was pretty neat. Striking matches on the side of the arches to smoke your cigarettes, that kind of rebellion? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know, right? You've nailed it. It was really cool. And like colors that you only see in pictures, you get to see exist in actual nature.

Lambert, a lot of dinosaur fossil selling happening in Moab. Is that a place that's a hotbed for finding old bones? Yeah, I mean, anywhere in the American West where a lot of deserts, as a matter of fact, around the world, yeah, that's a big thing. Yeah. You know, like there are parts, I want to say, I was reading something about the bad lands, I think it was one time. And they were like, yeah, you can just be walking around and be like, oh, yeah, there's a dinosaur bone sticking out of the ground. Like, it's really not a big deal in some parts of the country. I had another dinosaur thought that I wanted to run past you.

All right. Because I saw a couple of these places on our trip. Why is it, do you think so many miniature golf courses have a dinosaur motif? Who doesn't love dinosaurs? You say a dinosaur, you're like, this rocks. I don't love it. But is there anything that lends itself to miniature golf that's dinosaur related? Or is it just the overall love of dinosaurs?

I don't know. What's miniature golf related about, like, Mickey Mouse. You see him at a lot of not officially licensed Disney affiliates. You know? Like I... You mean where like Mickey Mouse looks like,

you know, Bart Simpson from the Tracy Olman show. Yeah. It looks like Mickey if you squint at him a little bit and you like kind of screw your face up. Like, yeah, I guess so. Sure. I think the most common miniature golf motif is probably pirates. That's a big thing. Pirates and dinosaurs are the big two. Yeah, yeah. Pirates are usually found at the shore.

Yeah, and that's right, the Dutch. And also circuses because it was a clown's mouth. Yes, we know. Sean, do they have miniature golf in Canada? Yes, they do, but it's obviously because of the weather, it's not as common. And it's, we don't do it in the insane way that you guys do in, like, very touristy spots, like Florida or Myrtle Beach, where there's these just, gigantic things and you're like, how is, how does this place possibly make financial sense that you have like a full active volcano in the middle of this and it's like $6 and I'm the only person here?

Yeah, but we do have it. What is the miniature golf course that James Myrtle Beach look like? Oh my God. Jesus Christ. Yeah. It's just a lot of puns. A lot of puns. Yeah.

Two killed. Diving through the same joke. Austin Matthews might Austin Matthews could score a hole as one on this one I say he does it He's on pace to shoot a 36 I say he does it The analyst back me up

How many holes do you have on a miniature golf course In Canada due to the metric system? Is it still 18? Yeah, it's the standard 20 What else would you do it? You know what? I went the wrong way with the Fuck

Stupid guy Is not smart at all It's all right It's a confusing system I agree Their monetary system And their metric system All right

You're in puck soup Where the fuck else would you be Coaching hot seats So I was on the Yarmal Keck-a-Lyin call this week Where he gave What has been reported As a vote of confidence Togella

essentially saying the coaching staff has gotten us out of these pickles before, and I'm confident that they can do it again. So I guess that is a vote of confidence. But when specifically asked by somebody, if John Tortorella was going to finish the season as the head coach, Kekyllinen said, as I said before, I have 100% confidence that the coaching staff will be able to turn the season around. So that's a no.

He did not guarantee that at all. I thought Portsline said he did say, Like, I didn't read this story. I just saw the headline, and I said, okay, I get it. So maybe I'm misremembering or something, but wasn't that the thing where he was like, he's not going to fire him this season, but blah, blah, blah. Because he's like out in contract at the end of the year. So, like, what's the point?

They're not going to make the playoffs anyway. Yeah. And now it may be a thing where he, you know, Portsline did some reporting before that call. On the call, there was no, like, he's definitely going to finish the season. All right. Now I'm going to look at it. But, I mean, Aaron is like the best, you know, beat guy in Columbus in blue jacket's history, I would say. Yeah, I couldn't even tell you in other ones.

So that's entirely possible. Point being is that the seat looked like it was getting a little sizzly for John Tortorella, Sean. But the temperature was bought down this week by his general manager, assuming that you believe a vote of confidence does such a thing. I mean, I think a vote of confidence, is a very short-term temporary turned out on the temperature. As much as we joke about it, it is very, very rare to see a situation where a guy gets a vote of confidence

and he's fired days later. But a month later, that's a long time in the sports world, especially when you're dealing with a condensed season. It's, yeah, I don't, you know, if I'm John Turner, I'm not hearing that and going, all right, time to refinance the house and extend the more like that. It's more like, yeah, maybe we'll plan for another few weeks, but other than that, it's not much.

Now, Ryan, you're a big John Totorella fan. What do you think about their situation? Well, look, I mean, I think it's kind of a lot like it was what everybody thought it would be last year, right? Like they were coming off losing, losing Panarin and Bobrovsky, and their only signing was like Gus Nyquist, where everybody was like, well, I don't think that's going to work out very well. Holy shit. I just had that Obi-Wan Kenobi of, no, there's a name I've not heard in quite a long time. Like, what is the last time anybody's talking about Gustav Nyquist? Holy shit.

And but like they were able to kind of keep it together. Like they played well, like, you know, all their underlying numbers. were actually pretty solid, and they got goal-tending that nobody could have reasonably expected them to get, like, including Columbus. Like, those two guys last season were unbelievable. This season, I think they've been not very good, like they've been maybe fine at best, you would say, and the underlying numbers suck. They're terrible.

I just looked it up. They're 29th in the league at five-on-five. So that's the problem is, you know, last year you could have said, you know what? maybe John Torrella just really has this thing cracked in terms of he's never going to be below like 51.5% expected goals. And then this year, it's like, okay, what if we amend that to 45.5? Right. Because that's how bad it is. I got to say, I did get a bit of a laugh from like Tororella's comments this week where he was like, I think it's a confidence thing.

We're just, you know, it's like we're out there afraid to make a mistake, said the coach who is famous for screaming at guys on the bench. and benching them as soon as they make. Yeah, why? Who knows? We're all trying to find the guy who did this. Yeah, like we had no idea. He said something really interesting, too. He said that, he said, he said, accountability and culture are summertime words.

I'd never heard that before. He meant, you talk about accountability and culture a lot in the off season, but rare is the team that actually does it in the regular season, and he kind of prides himself on being someone who holds people accountable. He better get that memo out. to literally everyone else in the NHL who apparently thinks that culture is the first, second, and third most important thing at all times. Yeah.

At all times. At all times. Yeah. Winter time, too. Sama time words. I think part of the equation here for Torterella being that he's in the last year of his contract is does he want to stay? Like, how annoying is it to be the coach of the Blue Jackets?

Like, every time you take a step forward, you take two steps back because they can't keep any of the players that are on the team. Now, now, that's another chicken to the egg argument as far as like, what is Torterell's role in that? But I think he's a coach that would be in demand if he were to become available. And I don't think that he would, like, why would you stick around to that situation if he'll work again if, assuming he wants to. Yeah, absolutely.

So it may be not next year, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You might say, think of all the 21-year-olds he hasn't screamed at yet. Yeah. You know? And, you know, I mean, if. He likes to yell at young players. I mean, that gets your job at NBC, right? So he can slide in there.

Or a random Canadian college. No, I think the thing is that, you know, if you're him, you leave. You probably double your salary somewhere else. You do maybe, like Sean said facetiously, but I think he could do a year of television, you know, in between gigs. And then, you know, wait until Bruce Cassidy gets fired and then take that Boston job. we all know you're eventually going to take at some point in your life. So, I don't know. I don't think he's Columbus as coached next year in any event.

Other coaching hot seats on which we have to check the temperature. Okay, it says here half the league, is that right? You know who's an interesting hot seat is Shelton Keefe? Because as dominant as the Leafs are, like, if they flamed out in the first round again, Sean, is there a chance Dupus gets fired? I would say very, very, very small. You never say never, but I can't. I think if this season had been a disaster, then yes.

But unless it's like they go out there and they blow a 10-0 lead in game seven, which I'm not ruling out, but it would have to be like one of those, every one of our worst nightmares coming true situations, at which point it's probably everybody. It's everybody below or maybe even including Brandon Shanahan goes and they just start all over. I don't think that's going to happen. And again, important to remember they won't see Boston until the final four. So the chances of that happening in the first round are very slim. Okay, that's the only reason I have to do like a

coaching hot seat thing this week for ESPN and I was I was going back and forth on Keith because like his seat should be ice cold. They're so good. But at the same time, like his fate is tied to that of There is never a cold seat in Toronto. It's just one of those markets. But I think his is, at this point, is probably about as cold as it reasonably could be. Especially as a youngish guy who doesn't like have the same reputation coming into the job. I think that's the only thing that maybe warms it a couple of degrees.

But no, I... It has some good faith built up from his work in the minors and other levels. Yeah, it hasn't burned a lot of the bridges, which is the other side of being a relatively new to the job. So, yeah. Now, there are obviously ones that, I mean, like Cooper, Vigno for now, like there's a number of guys, Brindamore, there are a number of guys who I think are in relatively good shape. But like Ryan said, there's a number of teams for whom the coaching hot seat is definitely a topic. Let's start in Buffalo, which is becoming an, like, it's obviously a hot seat because the entire

dumpster is on fire right now. when you start hearing things like lack of effort, which is what I think we saw in the third period against the Rangers this week, that starts really getting closer to will the coach pay for the sins of the players. I was on Buffalo Radio like only a week ago. And when we were talking about Eichol and Hall and everything,

and I bought up the topic of like when do we start talking about Ralph Krueger? And it was like, it's a topic that had never been broached in the show before. for. Like, it felt like that because he's such a popular guy and he's such a respected guy and he's built up so much goodwill, not only for getting jobs in Edmonton, but also doing what he did in the World Cup, but also being one of these amazing outside the box hires that we all kind of root for. Well, so. But, but teams not good. And it's not good because it might be, they're not good because the coach isn't made for these times in this league.

Or at least the coach isn't making them better. Yeah, well, the other thing to say is now it's starting to look like maybe he didn't get a raw deal in Edmonton and he just might not be that good of a fucking hockey coach. I mean, it's possible, right? Like at some point you do have to, again, I know, oh, the World Cup, nobody thought that team Europe would be any good. I get all that shit. But like, that was four games four years ago. Is that right? Yeah.

To speak to your point, like that team excelled because, I mean, they kind of played anti-hockey and relied on whole. black, right? Yeah, one of the best goleys of the era. Yeah, that's why they were, that's why they were able to excel. I mean, it's not as if this guy's a reputation of coaching a bunch of offensive juggernauts. So when we look down the Sabres roster and see the offensive numbers these guys are putting up, like, that could very well be the system. Well, that having been said, um, you know, we, we again have to acknowledge the Sabers roster is fucking terrible. Right?

Yeah. They made almost no, the only. changes they made from last year that were like notable in any way as signing Eric Stahl, who you would have thought maybe he shores up the center depth coming off a good year in Minnesota. And, and obviously Taylor Hall, who, you know, who knows how things worked out last year vis-a-vis, you know, his overall quality. Like, what effect did playing for two awful teams last season have on him? and now playing for a third awful team in a row.

Taylor Hall is, I know it's not the topic, but man, he has, I think, done a number on his own reputation. Oh, yeah. I mean, when he signed with the Sabres, I know a lot of people kind of went, oh, is this, does this guy, like, not want to win? Is that, is he really just about the biggest paycheck and, you know, but other people said, no, no, opportunity, and he's going to play with Ikel and all of this. wait and see, and then maybe he, even if they're not good, he can go to a contender at the deadline. I don't even know what they do with him now, let alone what, I mean, who's lining up to give this guy seven years? The e-half a salary and pray that somebody wants to give a low first-round pick for him is what they have to do.

Better pray hard. Yeah, and also he's got a no move. And everything we keep hearing is that he loves Buffalo. And I'm thinking, is he going to love him, if Michael's not there? If I'm Buffalo and somebody offers me a first-round pick for Taylor Hall and he says no, I leak that out with extreme prejudice that Taylor Hall turned down a chance to go to a contender and like it. Because I need that pick at this point and I'm not interested in signing this guy for, you know, a big long contract. Well, spoken like a, hold on, spoken like a man who's seen Matt Sundeen play a game or two, if that sounds like. Perhaps.

Yeah. Yeah. The thing I was going to say. real quick is like, you know, at some point, like, you just have to say, yeah, okay, now Taylor Hall's just going to do all this shit again this summer, because whoever trades for him, like, unless he goes all the way off for like Boston or somebody who, you know, they had interest in him over the summer. But like, we're just going to be, it feels like we're going to be in the Taylor Hall.

Where's he going to go? What's, what opportunities are going to present itself? Like, it's, you know, completely divorced from the hot seat question. At which point, if he gets traded at the deadline to a contender and then sign somewhere, that'll be five teams in a little over two years. Like, I mean, at some point, I like Taylor Hall. I've been, I've been a fan, but, you know, at some point, ugh. At some point, you have to admit he's the Alex Gelchenyuk of star player, Sean.

At some point, at some point, you know, like I say, people have pointed out, like he's getting outscored in terms of goals by Adam Larson right now. So maybe it's time to really. Maybe the 200 hockey men were on to something. That's good. Nashville. So they've turned the corner a little bit recently. They're still well behind the pack in the central and the numbers don't really add up.

I mean, in raw points, they're eight behind Chicago right now and only have a game in hand on the Blackhawks. John Hines just got hired, though, last year. Yeah, he's coached 50 games. Yep. And I hated that hire at the time, but. Me too. And I tried to tell. I looked up the numbers recently.

I think at one point this season, the Predators were like 29th in goals per game. And if you take the sum total of his time in New Jersey, you'll never guess. They were 209 to goals per game. So, again. But again, like this is one of those where I feel like he's tied to the GM, though, versus anything else. Yeah, for sure. And the other thing to say is they've turned the corner. They're three and two in their – or four and two in their last six games against Columbus, Detroit, Detroit, Columbus, Carolina.

And then lost to Detroit, right, recently? Yeah, they did lose to Detroit. But, like, you know, I wrote about it earlier this week with Chicago where everybody was like, oh, my God, Chicago's record. It's incredible. It's like, yeah, they've played Columbus and Detroit 17 times each. Like, it doesn't matter until you play Carolina, Tampa, and Florida, which Nashville, when they do that, gets run out of the fucking building most of the time. And when they don't do that, you know, they have two overtime or shootout wins against Chicago. Yeah, the only teams they've beaten this year are Columbus, Chicago and Detroit.

And, oh, no, I'm sorry. They have an overtime win against Florida. So, yeah, they're much like Chicago themselves. They can beat up on bad teams. But, like, you know, I think the top three or maybe even four, if you want to include Dallas, who have a, who have combined outscored Nashville. It says here, 10 to 2 in two games so far this year.

If you want to say those, like those are the clear top four, Carolina, Florida. Tampa and Dallas. Like, I think there's a pretty clear difference between those four and, say, Chicago and Nashville where maybe they're not as bad as we all thought they were going to be, but they're still not good. And then Columbus and Detroit, who are probably exactly as bad as they're supposed to be. Right. Calgary, Jeff Ward. Melanchich. Milan Luchich recently came out and gave a full-throated endorsement award saying it's on the players to turn this thing around.

But, you know, as we pointed out... I'm going to look up how many minutes a night Milan Luchich is playing. Yeah. The flames have a minus 11 goal differential, despite signing the best goalie of the free agent market, and are a middling under 500 team and points percentage in the Canadian division. We talked about how the pressure cooker in that division. vision was going to be so intense that many people would lose their jobs potentially, one already has, and Claude Julian. Sean, Jeff Ward, long for this world. I mean, I think they'd be

very hesitant, similar to the John Heinz situation to fire a guy midway through what would have been his first full season behind the bench. He came in in really tough circumstances last year with the Bill Peters thing. He did a good job. It has not been as good this year. The one thing that worries me if I'm Jeff Ward or I'm a fan who wants to see him stick around is the like this these choices are never made in a vacuum especially up here in Canada where there's so much scrutiny. And the fact that you're chasing Montreal for a playoff spot and Montreal just made the broke the seal and made the first change of the year, if they start getting a little bit of momentum going and you're seeing them pull away, there's going to be a lot of people saying, well, how come we can't do the same thing? turn them around, why don't we do it? And he's kind of right in that danger zone where his team is bad enough that his seat is warming up and yet not so bad that they're already out of the running and you go, well, we just

write it out and finish the year and then figure it out in the offseason. I don't know. I still think he's more likely than not to stick around, but it's that the pressure is going to crank up in that division even more so as we go. Yeah, I think the real issue for the flames, honestly, is that, like, Markstrom hasn't been great in part because they have to overplay him because they don't trust Dave Riddick.

And, like, you know, there was, I can't remember now, but there was a stretch where he played, like, nine games in a row or something like that, maybe. And it was the game where he was just, like, throwing himself at the puck against Vancouver, I want to say. Yeah. And like, you know, they kind of throttled it back since then. But they just they just don't trust the goaltending and like the real problem for them is they signed Marsstrom with the understanding like, okay, yeah, the last couple of years of this deal might not be very good.

But think about how much value we're going to get out of him in the first couple of years. And it's like, well, that ship did not come in for you. I don't know how you How you like ignore that as an organization and I do think to the earlier point about John Heinz This is very much tied to how long does Brad Trilliving have To just keep turning out these like mediocre teams with like three bad contracts on them You know

It keeps happening Yeah it does Vancouver, Travis Green. What do we think? Who's doing a better job with that? Like, I don't think he's done a great job or anything, but who's doing better, you know? It's also a last year of his contract kind of deal, too, where you figure, like, he sees it through the end of the season, at the very least. Or it says that, I mean, the other half of that logic is, if you're a GM, once you've made up your mind that you're not bringing a guy back at the end of the year.

Do you keep them for the rest of the year, or do you bring in someone else or maybe take a look at an assistant or somebody you want to bring it on an interim basis and get some evaluation that way? And it's a little bit similar to Calgary. Like in a weird way, Travis Green, the fact that his team is worse, might put him in a little bit safer situation because if they don't do something soon, the ship is, I mean, it's already sailed, but the ship will have sailed so far that they can't even cross the horizon. Yeah, exactly. But the thing with him is, oh, man, I don't know. It's, he's a good coach. But similar to Calgary, what is the GM doing?

What is the GM thinking? Is the GM thinking about the team or is the GM thinking about his own job status? And if I'm Jim Benning, am I sitting there going, okay, I know my seat's very hot. I make a move now that can, if it works out, that might buy me some time. if I say we're going to wait until the off season, then I'm going to fire him on the Monday, first Monday of the off season, I might be the one going to. It might be a two for one.

So I've got to do something to protect myself here. And this is the biggest thing that I can do. If you're Seattle, do you hire Travis Green if he gets fired? I mean, Bruce Boudreau and Claude Julian and Gerard Galant are all available. I don't, I'm not like, you know who I'm going to call up is the guy who has the Canucks near the bottom of the league again. I do think Green gets another shot somewhere. Oh, yeah, for sure.

But, like, if I'm Seattle, that's not my first choice. And you also have NBC analyst Mike Babcock, too. Speaking of, well, I don't know why I was going to transition. I was thinking about NBC, then I automatically think of New York because of like 30 Rock. The Rangers. Quinn, what do we think? Very hot seat. This is kind of the one where you're already seeing some of the media, like, openly write pieces about how they should make a change.

I mean, Larry Brooks is kind of bang the drum a couple of times and you can say whatever you want about Larry Brooks, but he and the post have some sway in that market. And, yeah, I don't think, you know, Quinn, he doesn't have the track record of success. he is a situation where that team was expected to be better. They are not good enough and yet not completely out of a playoff mix. Again, perception-wise, maybe more so than reality. I think that's a potentially dangerous one. And it's going to be a very attractive job too. So, yeah.

Yeah, the one thing to say is you generally speaking don't want your coach to be giving quotes in the media like, I don't know what's wrong with the team. Yes. Yeah. You know, like, and he literally has done that on more than one occasion in the last couple of years. Like, look, if I had an answer for you, I'd just put it into play. Yeah, okay.

But like, your job is to be the guy who has that answer. So, yeah, that's a real tough, that's a real tough sell for me if I'm Jeff Gordon. I might be more interested in who the Rangers hire than I am and who Seattle hires, to be honest with you. Like, that job is such. A plum gig. And the other thing to say, sorry, cut you off, but like the other thing to say about it is like, you know, they brought him in to be like the development guy. We have so many young kids.

He's turned so many guys into pros at BU. Like, let's get, all their kids stink. You know? Like, like, um. Capococo. Capocco, I guess, is the prime example. But like, Lafranier's only got like five points. this year and he hasn't looked great.

He's a kid. He's going to be fine. I understand, but like, it's the second year and row. Would you trade Loponnire? Would you trade Loponnire one for one for Eichel? Well, that's a different. It's a different podcast episode, I think. But like, how many kids have they been like, well, I guess we've got to get rid of, like,

leas Anderson because it's just not working and maybe it's just not going to work out? But, like, how many players under 23 or 24 are, like, not, rising to the level that people expected them to in this organization. And at what point do you go, oh, maybe that guy we brought in to, like, develop those players? Maybe that's not working out so well. Yeah. I said this before on the pod, and I'll say it again. Like, he is very much the guy you fire before you take the leap.

Like, that's his role. And I think that time is clearly arriving in short order. Dallas, Ekins, and Anaheim, what's there to really say? I mean, they're not. good and and he's now getting a second kick at the can at this and it's not working out. So what do you even do there? And it is even worth firing him in season if you're at Anaheim. Yeah, that's one where that ship we were talking about has fully sailed.

So, I mean, we saw Bob Murray fire a coach and put himself behind the bench once before. Does he want to do something like that again? I don't know. He's kind of gone off the board before. But, yeah, and unfortunately for Aiken's, this is two seasons and two jobs, and the success level just hasn't been there. And, you know, especially when you look around, you see what's happening in L.A. The team that, in theory, should be at a similar point in the rebuild,

maybe a little bit ahead. But it doesn't help. Yeah. Finally, let me throw this one out there. St. Louis. Now, you'd assume Craig Ruby is okay there. You know, still has the shine of the Stanley Cup championship. A team that obviously has been impacted by the loss of Vladimir Tarasenko.

They're going to get them back soon. But they are fourth in points percentage right now. They're okay, 12, 8, and 2. That's fine. Plus 1 in goal differential. Any heat there or no? I don't know. I can't.

imagine, right? Like, it just, again, like you said, it's not so long ago that they won the cup. Like, what's interesting is that, like, a lot of the, uh, that, the level of play that won them the cup, like everybody's going like, oh, they're, you know, their underlying numbers are so good. Like, they're better than the, than the record indicates. And that's why they went to the cup final and then eventually won the cup, right? It was like, they just played really good hockey and they continued to do it last year. I don't think they're doing that this year. Do you? Like, I mean, let me pull up the frickin' evolving hockey page.

Yeah, they're 19th in the league and expect a goals percentage in all situations. Like, the sharks are better than them. Chicago's better than them. The capitals are better than them. Like, teams that are never good by XG are all better than the Blues who are supposed to be really good at it. Yeah. And so I do wonder, like, you know, they're probably going to make the playoffs, right? Like, that division's a little weird just because like...

Really set up. Yeah. But like that division's a little weird just because, you know, there's such a clear one, two, and then, you know, take your pick for teams three through five. But like, it wouldn't surprise me if St. Louis finishes third. It wouldn't surprise me if St. Louis finishes fifth. the only thing I could say with that is it would be like a galaxy brain version of the penguins a few years ago where it was like you had Mike Johnson who was his record was pretty good and yet it was kind of like well you know we we did the midseason thing once a few years ago and it turned into a Stanley Cup maybe we'd do it again but that was like six years and a whole different coach in between like to do this I don't I don't I don't think anyone should get to coast on past accomplishments,

but to fire a guy who won a cup two years ago and has had one full season, that to me would just be unless you better really know something has gone very wrong that the rest of us aren't seeing. Well, let's put it this way. Through March, or through the end of March, this is what their schedule looks like. It's a handful of games against the Kings. It looks like four games, a bunch of games against the docks, bunch of games against the sharks, few against Vegas.

And if they're still not playing that well, even after putting up a bunch of, putting up a bunch of what should be Ws against those teams, like, then it's a whole different question. But right now, you know, they're four games above 500 in terms of points percentage, two in reality. And the teams they're losing to, yeah, like there was that weird stretch against Arizona, but otherwise, like, they're not losing very often. So, you know, I don't know.

Like, I guess the only thing to say is that they've played the Kings, what is it? It looks like four times and lost three of them. So, I don't know. Yeah. It's tough. What really it boils down to is they're not getting the goaltending they used to. That's it. And, and like, Bennington's been average, maybe a little bit better than that.

But, like, the Vili Huso apparently isn't Jake Allen? is what we have to arrive at. I think there's just such a clear top four in that division that it's pretty ballsy to say it's going to be a close shave to get into the playoffs for the blues. Speaking of close shaves around the balls, today's episode of Puck's Soup is sponsored by Manscaped. Thank you.

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They couldn't get that one locked down. Yeah. If you're good news for Calloway. there's still a chance that you could use that slogan for your golfs. Yeah, I think that that was, that one was trademarked by the Edmonton Oilers when it came to the draft lottery. So already taken. It's Connor McDavid's least favorite slogan. The athletic, that's a place for your work, Sean.

They put up their first 2021 NHL trade board, which I'm assuming. at some point is going to lead to a knife fight between Craig Custin's and Frank Sarvelli, who I thought had the corner, the market cornered on trade. Should have trademarked it, Frank, apparently. Your trade board, well, thank you, exclamation point. Matthias Ekholm is number one on the NHL trade board on the athletic. One more year at $3.75 million. Obviously, if the predators are looking to start a, a,

little reconfiguration of their roster. It would start with a guy like Eckholm, and he's number one on the board. I mean, you're either going to have to trade him or pay him, and he's 30, so I assume they're going to trade him. That's a really, really good player that's going to go to some contender. Yep, that is a good one, and he's – this is that kind of shift that we thought maybe we were seeing last year at the deadline, where instead of always looking for the rental the guy who's just got a few months left on the contract,

is it better to do like the Lightning did and go and seek out guys who are on good value deals with a little bit of term left. And this is a bit more than what the Lightning did. But yeah, you get to the deadline. There's going to be teams, good teams, that have space for a guy like this and you, in theory, can get a pretty decent premium

because you're getting them for a year and a bit, two playoff runs. I mean, I think he makes a lot of, of sense. There's a lot of of Predators' names on this list, and we're all kind of waiting to see whether David Poyle throws in the towel. I mean, Philip Forsberg is number four on Craig's list.

Boy, that would be a big one, but that's another guy with one year left. You know, at some point, you've got to look at this roster and go, what does this look like in three or four years? And if we don't see names on that in three or four years, then... He is a part of the solution guy for me.

Like, I wouldn't... It could be. How old is he, though? So, I, we're 26. So three, four years from now, he's 29, 30. Oh, God, here we go again with you. It's just like, it's like Logan's run every time with you with these guys when they hit 30. What I'm saying is, what, you know, I think he has an expiring contract before then, right? So what are you going to pay him?

One more year left. Yeah, so what do you have to pay him to keep him versus what can you get when you trade him? Mm-hmm. Like, it's not an unreasonable thing to consider. Oh, no, I'm not saying that. I would consider trading Ryan Ellis before I consider trading him, though. Yeah? Well, yeah, Ryan Ellis is 30, right?

Yeah. So, sure. And should go to that island that you put all the 30-year-old NHL players on. Yeah. To make them disappear. Yeah, good news for Lou Lamarillo. But, Chris Tigger. Especially because Ryan,

Alice is signed through like 20, 28? I want to say, like, you signed forever. A long time. Yeah. Chris Drieger is number, number two is Eichel, by the way, who I don't think gets traded in season. No. Number three is Drieger, the Panthers goalie, who's been an absolute sensation for them this season. Obviously on this list because they have to protect Bob, because he's got the no move, I think, right?

Does he have a no move? I assume he does. He has to. I'm going to double check. I'm on cat friendly. I got you. Hold on. he does have a no move

yeah so they have to protect Bob and so they would have to then expose and he's a UFA also he's a UFA right so would they have to expose him or they aren't that's true

they wouldn't but he is a UFA well it's they sign yeah they can lose him put it that way because remember if a guy's a UFA that means that the expansion team gets to talk to them early and then if they sign him that counts as

the pick from your team. But it's basically whether the fact that his UFA doesn't change, the fact that if they don't re-sign him and protect him, then he is, they're vulnerable to losing him. You can't just say, hey, man, we'll sign you on July 1st, but, you know, for now, let's just slip you by that Seattle gets advanced chance to talk to him. And if there was an under the table thing, and you got busted for it. I'm not saying the Panthers would ever mess up an expansion draft. I'm just saying, scenario.

But the real issue is that the Panthers have. a Department of Goaltending Excellence, and they also have a kid named Spencer Knight in the system. So the idea that they're going to commit to Drieger for any kind of long-term deal is not going to happen. But at the same time, the Panthers are good now, and they haven't been good in so long, and I don't know if you trust Bobrovsky right now. Do you honestly trade, and you're not going to bring up Spencer Knight and necessarily expect him to just run with it? Be the guy, yeah. Do you move the guy who's keeping your season afloat right now? It's a really tough call.

I almost feel like Zeta would have to be blown away by an offer to make that deal just because they are relevant for the first time and forever. And it's because he's getting more starts than Bob. Yeah. And the other thing with this is the same as any midseason, especially trade deadline, goalie trade, you're sitting there going, who is going who is going to be good enough that they're looking to add at the deadline and yet needs a goalie? And the reality is most of the teams that need goalies are bad and they're selling. and most of the teams that have goalies are good and they're buyers. He's cheap enough that some team could bring him in as depth. It's not like you're bringing in a guy who's going to be your certified starter,

but it's tricky. It's tough to squeeze value out of that versus the offseason where, you know, teams have obvious holes that they're looking at to fill. It's kind of bonkers that anybody would have a seat open in their goalie tandem at this point in the season. Like you should have kind of sealed up that hole in the off season. but maybe if somebody gets injured, that's a possibility too. Ricard Raquel of the Ducks, one more year at 3.789, he's number five on this list in back of Forsberg.

I mean, he's sort of a conundrum at this point in his career. Like, at one point it seemed like he was going to be a consistent 30-goal guy, but hasn't necessarily played out that way. Now, that could just be the way of the world for the Ducks. You know, but do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, do you like, it's, I mean, I guess the thing that's wrong with him is the contract, right? Am I wrong that he is getting a lot of money or am I no, no, no, like I just said, it's it's, it's, it's, it's, I think it's like, uh, um, one more year at 3.789. So that's not a ton of money. But like the right. The question is and we're, and we're seeing this with like, um, with vancou. trying to make deals and stuff like that is are teams willing to take on the money

without having any money? Because the ducks don't want to take money back is apparently the issue, which is understandable. But I don't know. That's, I guess, the big concern is just going like, okay, is this a situation where I just have to just take all that money? Because like I say, I think he's pretty good.

But he's not what people maybe thought he would be. And also, you know, if I have to give up like picks or prospects or whatever and just flat out take the money, I can't see that working for a lot of teams. Right. Clayton Keller is sixth on this list. And the logic here is that the coyotes would trade a 22-year-old with six more years on his contract because they, hired a general manager to make the team good through the draft and don't have any draft picks. And in theory, Clayton Keller can get you some draft picks. Right. In theory. But doesn't this sort of strike you as one of those, you know, not part of the problem,

but part of the solution kind of deals again? Or is, where are you on Keller as a potential star player? I mean, the stock has definitely fallen. I'm not sure who is out there. right now saying, you know what I want to do in the middle of the season is add a guy who makes seven million and has had one season over 50 points in his career? That's an off-season. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's an off-season deal, I think. Maybe you try to plant some seeds right now, but I mean, just that level of contract is starting

to cut the number of teams that can even think about it during the seasons. And I'm not sure with a deal like that, why you wouldn't want to, unless you felt like the strike while the iron's hot and the market is there for him right now, he's putting up better numbers this year than he did last year. To me, that's an offseason deal. Doesn't this, Ryan strike you as being a move that, like, Detroit would make? Get a Clayton. Again, like, is Arizona taking money back? Because why would Detroit just go, you know what? Fuck it.

Let's let's just, you know, trade. you the absolute garbage at the bottom of our roster and you don't have to take a single cent back because, you know, I can't imagine Arizona's like, you know what, we'll take Mark Stahl off your hand. You know, give us. I just mean, I just mean Detroit in the sense of like, they obviously need to upgrade their talent up front, right? Sure.

No doubt about that. And Keller's young. They've got them locked in. They clearly have some picks to deal if they wanted to. But you're right. As far as like a money and money out thing, I mean, there's not a whole lot on that. right now that they need to clear out Detroit. Yeah, I, like,

like one more year of Franz Nielsen they could take. Right. I'm just like, I think that's like a league-wide problem too. Like I don't, I'm not going to just keep saying it about like relatively small market warm weather teams or whatever. Like Vancouver needs to,

needs to cut salary. Like, where did I just read this? Like most teams, it might have been in the customs thing. But it was like most teams have a directive to cut salary, not take it on. So like the idea that. all these things are going to happen and all these guys, even a quarter of these guys are

definitely going to get traded or anything like that is in mid-season, I'm really skeptical that that's going to happen. I think very little is going to happen in terms of like notable players actually moving this year. Yeah. A couple more. Kyle Palmey is going to pop up on a lot of these lists. I have a familiarity, obviously, with this team.

I can't imagine a team that can't finish. is going to trade their best finisher. I just can't wrap my brain around the idea of them not trying to extend polymeria and keep him around. He's only 30. You know, don't go crazy with the term, but team can't put the fucking puck in the net. And I feel like he's sort of part of the solution there. Sam Bennett, Lambert, do we see him finally move? I mean, he wants out, right?

Like, he's specifically said, like, or, well, his agent has told the media, like, the client wants out. and they're not playing, they're scratching him and benching him a lot and that kind of thing. You know, again, like, it's not a good contract for any team acquiring him. And, like, if you do get him, it's only based on the reputation of, well, look, he was a high draft pick six years ago or however old he is now, right? Like, that's the thing. Like, I can definitely see where Calgary wants to move him, but like a Jake Vertanan, like, who's, who's taking that money for a guy who kind of sucks. Speaking of the money, this was a really interesting one that they put on this list.

Only because I never really thought about it until I put him on. Dustin Brown. Dustin Brown's only got one more year after this one at 5.875. There was a tie of when that contract was like one of the biggest albatrosses in the league. He's actually played pretty well this year. And you could see him being that type of like late stages, veteran, I mean, maybe power forwards too generous, but Ford who has won cups in the past and is a captain and all thing.

Two-time cup captain, I mean. Yeah, I mean, like, you could see a team wanting to maybe dabble in the Dustin Brown business because of all that stuff. But some GM out there would absolutely talk him. And he's having a good year this year, like, you know, relative to what you would have expected. it would be smart by the Kings to at least explore. Obviously, when you're talking about the only guy in the history of your franchise

to lift the Stanley Cup as your captain, it gets a little bit tricky. It's not just as simple as saying, oh, yeah, these picks are more valuable, and so off we go. But if he's open to it, yeah, I think that's a smart team would explore that sort of move. He only has a seven-team, no trade list. He has a modicum of protection. But the other thing, too, is that crazy-ass contract he signed in 2014, for those that

don't remember, it was an eight-year $47 million contract for Dustin fucking Brown. He's now in the stage of his contract where his base salary is only $4 million for the next two seasons. See, I think that's very attractive to teams, especially if you go, and you know what, L.A., why don't you cut that in half or by a quarter or something like that? Like, why don't you retain the money? I don't think they're retaining anybody's... contracts, right? Yeah, it says here they're not. So they could do it and I, you know, I think they would be smart to do it. If you can get absolutely literally anything in exchange for Dustin

Brown at this point, you definitely go, you know what? Like, I know you're having a good season, but have a good one. Let me put it this way, Greg. If a guy in the NHL is only two years younger than me, he probably shouldn't be around long term for you. I know you're, I know you get I get mad when I say anybody over 30 is probably not a person to be betting on long term. But a 36-year-old Dustin Brown is the kind of guy. I'm more than comfortable saying, thanks for your service. We'll catch you at the next alumni event. But Dustin Brown has spent his entire life honing his body like a fine instrument.

You have not. So he's clearly in better shape than you, right? Well, you know That's maybe true I bet he's in slightly better shape than me It's funny When Bobby Lashley won the WWE title the other day

I was like Damn, that's cool I love Bobby Lashley That guy's really cool And then I was like Didn't I like tweet something Like a joke about Bobby Lashley I hope it's not like

You know Like saying I think he sucks or anything Because I don't think he sucks But the joke was that I was in slightly better shape than him. The thing about Bobby Lashley that was interesting this week, and again, I don't watch Raw every week.

I don't watch Raw any weeks, so I'm an AEW mark now in this stage of my life. Apparently they did a bit where Ms. had the title. He won it. He cashed in the money in the bank. He won the title at the last pay-per-view, which I think was the elimination chamber, right? That's right, yeah. And so he won the belt.

And then they did a bit during Raw where Lashley wanted to fight him for the title, and then like, Miz would, like, he came up with an excuse, an injury excuse. Yeah, he did the cowardly heel shit. That was, right. And then there was a match where he, like, he just, like, walked out of the ring and lost by countout, which is, again, amazing cowardly heel shit. And then finally, at the end of the show, Lashley beat him for the title.

And Raw evidently popped a pretty good rating with that gimmick. But I read the recap, I'm like, I wish they would do more self-contained bits on these shows. Like, you tune, Nitro used to do that a lot and do it well, where you would tune in at the beginning of the show they would do something and then they would just follow it through at the end of the show and then that's your show

like it's not something that carries over three weeks later it's just that's your show and that's good television writing and I appreciated reading about that and congrats to Bobby Lashley rocks and when he won he won

like he just absolutely beat the shit out of the miss and was like the match is over he hit his finisher and then kept beating him up and like that's that also is good writing where it's like, no, the reason the MIS was afraid of him was that he knew Bobby Lashley would destroy him.

And then Bobby Lashley destroyed him, right? Like that's what makes it good, like, you know, like you said, like TV writing is narratively, it makes sense that the Mizz is like, oh, I don't want to fight Bobby Lashley because he'll wreck me. Have you seen the size of this man? Like he's huge. Yes. Yeah. He's a gentleman, but a violent one. Speaking of Violent Gentlemen, this episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by the Violent Gentleman Hockey Club.

It's solid work today. Thank you. You know, it's amazing what happens to your boy when it doesn't have to wake up at 6 o'clock in the morning due to this show on the West Coast. Oh, that's the excuse. Speaking of cowardly heels. Oh, I'd have been fine. Except, you know, alarm box. So Violent Gentleman Hockey Club, or the VGHC, as they call themselves, is a club for fans of the.

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if you enter Puck Soup, all one word, P-U-C-S-O-U-P, at checkout for 15% off your entire order at Violent Gentleman.com. A lot of people were super, excited to hear us, uh, them advertising on the show. Uh, I had a lot of people reach out to me on Twitter and be like, that's so cool. I'm a big violent gentleman fan and great to hear him on Puck Soup. So, uh, do check out their stuff. I think if you dig the podcast, you'll, you'll dig the stuff they make to. Violent gentlemen.com enter Puck Soup at checkout for 15% off your order. Quick spin around the league. The Leafs are running away with the north. Is that sustainable,

Sean. I mean, finishing first is probably sustainable. Playing at a 750 clip for the entire year, even if they don't have Austin Matthews or their two best goalies is probably not. But yeah, they should win this division. We said that at the beginning of the year. And we will continue to say it now that they've got a seven-point lead almost at the halfway mark. And of course, none of it will matter until they get to the playoffs and we see what. happens there because they lose in the first round.

It doesn't matter if they could win the president's trophy, losing the first round and the season is still going to be viewed as a failure. Yeah. I did awards watch this week, and I didn't put – I think Sheldon Keefe was outside of the top three. Maybe he was one of the finalists I had. But point being is that I think he's one of these guys that should get credit for navigating the ship as he has in that division and probably will get credit.

But also, like, the Leafs have gotten incrementally better defensively this season for a team that looked like it did. I think they're taking a huge step forward defensively. Yeah. And you know what? That is true. And it's going to sneak up on people because especially if you're not up here in Canada and following the North Division as closely. You talk about the Leafs and defense, everyone's going to think about the 5-1 game with the Senators. And everyone's going to be like, same old Leafs.

They get a lead and then they give up the big comeback. But they're pretty good defense. And what they did in those first two games in Edmonton, without Freddie Anderson, without us and Matthews, shutting down McDavid recital, that whole Edmonton team, there were a few of us on Twitter. Like,

there were some references made to like, this is kind of the Happy Gilmore has learned to putt moment. Like when the Raptors figure out how the doorknob works, and it's kind of like, oh, man, if this is... It's game over, yeah. Yeah, if the Leafs know how to play defense, but, you know, we want to see it for more than a couple of weeks, but it's, yeah, it's, makes you a bit nervous. Can I make a confession? Can I make a confession?

I'm not a happy Gilmore fan. I recently, I watched it this week. It's so funny. It's so good. It's pretty, I mean, it's funny. I think it gets elevated because it's a sports comedy and so few sports comedies are really, really good. I appreciate its place in pop culture. I just remember, and maybe I need to watch it again, because I just remember, as a big Billy Madison fan, that I wasn't crazy about Happy Gilmore, but I did like other Sandler movies, like Mr. Deeds and shit like them, and Big Daddy and shit like that. But Happy Gilmore never really did it for me,

but I've always appreciated its contributions to hockey culture and sports comedy culture. And I thought about it recently because of the video that Sandler did and that Christopher McDonald did in response to it. And I love the fact that Shooter McAvin exists. I love the Bob Barker thing. I love the fact he wore a Brune's seriously.

which just was never really my flick, but maybe I'm missing the vote on it. Yeah, like I said, I watched it this week, and I was not sure what to expect. It's on HBO Max right now, so it's easy to track down. And I was like, you know what? The shit still rocks, and I don't know if it rocks because, you know, I saw it when I was like 13 or whatever, but I was like, I have nothing bad to say about this movie. Again, the Christopher McDonald performance should have been nominated for an Oscar. He's that fucking funny in that movie.

He's incredible in that movie. What about you, Sean? Where do you fall on Happy Gilmore? I'm a big fan. And also, it's not a hockey movie, but it's close enough that I, I mean, you could make a case that it's the funniest hockey comedy. If you're not going to count Slapshot as a pure comedy movie, it's right up there. It was fantastic. And, you know, I saw it when I was exactly.

in the age group that it was aimed at, which certainly didn't hurt. But no, it's funny. He fights Bob Barker, man. Like, if you're not laughing when that's happening, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, and Carl Weathers is great. He's so funny in it. I respect all of it.

I respect all of it. I just, I guess I feel like, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. I'm not saying I wasn't entertained. I'm not saying that it's not a movie that I wouldn't watch if it's on. I just, I feel like it gets elevated it a little bit higher than, than I would elevate it as a sports comedy. But it's, it's good. Like, for example,

I don't think it's, I think Talladega Knights is better. Is that wrong to say? Yeah, I think that's crazy. And I like Talladega Nights, but I don't think it's, maybe it's just because I'm not as plugged into the auto racing community. No shit. Really? But like, I'm not a golf guy either.

And I can watch that movie and go, you know what? Like, they, they get what is like inherently funny about golf. And I don't know that I necessarily. feel that they do that when it comes to auto racing in Talladega nights. This is an incredible... You're not logging on every day to see who's driving

for the Penske team this year. No. In the NASCAR circuit? No. Okay. The wild are fun. We agree on that? Yeah. Yeah, they were good.

We talked about that in the mailbag episode, but... All right. I want to... This is the first time. in forever that it's like, like we said in in the mailbag. Like you're sitting down at night like, where's the Minnesota wild game? I want to watch that. That's never been said before, but it is now.

And, you know, we talked about whether we thought they were actually for real or not, but they're fun right now. No doubt. Yeah. Is there a world where Caprisoff doesn't win the Calder? Yeah, it's one where he gets hurt, right? I guess the other way it happens is if Lankin keeps it up in Chicago somehow makes the playoffs. Yeah, if Chicago makes the playoffs, I have a feeling that it'd be really hard not to give the kid the Calder.

And the kid by that, I mean, he's fucking 25. But I mean, he took what was supposed to be the worst goaltending tandem in the league and made it good. But then again, you look at like Suevance played six games. It's kind of fucking 916 stay percentage, which is well better than I thought Malcolm Suban could do for that team. Sure. So it's been interesting in Chicago. But I mean, I think the Calder typically goes to the forward that leads in goals, the forward that leads in points, but mostly the forward that hit the highlight reel the most, you know. And I feel like that's obviously going to be pretty tough this year.

Yeah, like he's such an exciting player to watch. Like, you know, it was only at four on four and they'd been out for a while. But that clip of him skating against, like, literally skating circles around the McCar pairing from last week is, like, one of the most entertaining things in the history of the Minnesota wild. They didn't even score on that play. But it's just like, yeah, they, you know, they had Marion Gabbrick for a little while and he could kind of play this kind of hockey. But otherwise, like, when's the last time you saw Minnesota play anything approaching that level of experience? excitement. I don't think it ever happened.

He could play that kind of hockey when he was allowed to, if it was the thing. Yeah. Are the Penguins a playoff team? That's a good question. Well, first off, Sid's got to get off the COVID list. That was a big surprise this week, not a very good one. They're a playoff caliber team, I think, but that might not be enough in the East. Yeah, that's the thing, right?

I feel like everybody kind of talked about it at least a little bit. early in the season, but, like, everybody was like, oh, that's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of good teams in that division. Everybody's going to be a tough out. And, like, I don't know that everybody is really good in that division or if they're just kind of all equally a little bit good. You know what I mean? Like, you know, Boston's slowing down a little bit and maybe those problems that we said, like,

let's put it this way. They're claiming Jared Tenorty off waivers to tighten up the defense. It's like, that's not a great sign. I think the capitals are good in three game stretches, and that'll be enough to get them into the playoffs. Yeah, I think. They can put together three great games once every, like, nine days. I think that's putting it well, is that they're, you know, they're a team that for the last few years has had a lot of problems, but also always enough talent to power out of it. And maybe they have that again, but also maybe not, right?

Like, let's put it this way. The highest goal difference in that division is Boston's, and in any other division, I think it would be like the third or fourth highest. Right. So, you know, do I think they're all good? Yeah, like a team that is playoff caliber is 100% going to miss the playoffs in that division. And I don't know if you, like, in any normal season is what I'm saying. Yeah.

But you mean the devils. but no, you don't. Oh, okay. The Flyers Islanders, it's going to be one of the Flyers Islanders and Penguins. I think Boston and the Capitals are playoff teams. Yeah, I think that's right. I think Flyers, one of those teams is going to miss. And, you know, for entertainment's sake, I hope it's the Islanders, but probably won't be because they just know how to.

They're the islanders. Yeah. Yeah, scratch and claw and inch their way into the playoff picture. Before we get to a overrated, underrated this week, Ryan, I think, I think, did you mention this or did Shaw mention this? the stars should be diving a lot more. Yeah, so, like, I was watching the, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, oilers game the other night and, and all these Leafs fans were like, oh, McDavid took a dive and he, and he, and he didn't get the call and then he took a

frustration penalty. And like, that's objectively funny that that happened, but, but also, like, star, you know, star players in this league don't get protected and star players should dive because otherwise they're literally never going to get a fucking call. And this was unpopular? Yeah, because, you know, people don't like the idea of diving, right? Right, even though it's a tactic. It's not even that it's necessarily a tactic.

It's just like people don't like the idea that you're not like staying on your skates 100 or you're not shaking your hand like you got slashed really hard when someone maybe only tapped you a little bit or whatever. Like people don't like the idea of embellishment. That's why there's a fine for it, right? but like it's something that star players literally have to do in this league or they just don't get calls. I remember I wrote about this a few years ago and I just looked up like the number of penalties drawn per 60 for every player in the league. And all the guys who draw a ton of penalties are like third and fourth liners. And like I don't remember the number now, but like Connor McDavid was something like 138th in the league over his entire career. Wow.

And in penalties drawn per 60. And it's like, even if you don't think that, you know, Connor McDavid's skill set 100% should result in more penalties than it does, he shouldn't be 130th or whatever the number was in penalties drawn per 60. Like, that's a crazy number. You asked about other unpopular hockey opinions we might have, which of course is edging very close. to being a mailbag question that we summarily ignore. But I do have one that I wanted to put on the table here. And you tell me if you like it or not. Because honestly, I don't know if this is a good idea or a bad idea. One of the planks of my platform has always been that we should go back to two-minute majors. I agree. Totally agree. We had back in the day, they got rid of it because

Montreal used to score like 800 goals in those two minutes because they had guys named like Rocket. it. The two-minute major for me has always been a thing where I feel like it's going to cut down on penalties and is going to reward skill. And from a gambling perspective, it's going to make every game 9 to 7, which is going to be very exciting. So you like it. Sean, what do you think about two-minute majors? Here's my problem with it. Ryan, in his otherwise awful opinion about encouraging diving, did say something true, which was that the refs just aren't calling enough. penalties especially against the elite players but the reason the refs aren't doing that is because they're always quote unquote managing the game

and they're always keeping track in their heads okay I've got a call two against this team the next one's got to be against that team oh it's a third period is a game close yeah it's close we're going to let stuff go we're going to let the players play um if if you think referees are reluctant to call a penalty in the third period of a close game now

when that could lead to one goal wait until we see a few power plays that lead to two or three goals. It's a fair point. Yeah. Remember the amount of freak out that we had over the Knights' Sharks game seven where there were four goals scored on a major. And I mean, we started reviewing penalty, something we said we were never, ever going to do. And that all changed based on one power play where, I mean, the Knights could have just killed the power play. That's what a lot of teams do. They gave up

four goals and everybody freaks out. What's going to happen the first time that some team is up two to one. There's five minutes left. A referee calls an obvious penalty. And the other team scores two goals and wins the game and everybody loses their minds. It's one of the many things where I go, in theory, love the idea, in reality, do not trust the league to enforce it. So I'm not, I'm not against the idea. I just, I think it would backfire. That's low key, by the way, one of my top five games I ever got to attend. I never mentioned it in the pantheon of having been to the Olympics and shit. But like covering that game was Absolutely.

Yeah. Fucking bonkers. Sean, you got one you went up on the table? I mean, the problem that I have is I have all these strong opinions, and they always start off on popular, but then I make the case and people realize that I'm right and they shift over. I would say probably my, I mean, my least popular opinions are, number one, that I think we should make the Nets bigger,

that there's a certain segment of the fan base that just will never, ever, ever accept that, and they get this really mad when you suggest it. I think my other one is probably that goalie interference is fine. Most of the people, and especially in the media who complain about not understanding it, have just never bothered to read the rule and try to figure it out. It's not simple, but I don't think it's that complicated. I think if you know the rule, you can figure out 90% of the calls before they happen. And I think if you're going to change anything about goalie interference,

we should just ditch the review altogether. it's a subjective call like many other calls in the league. We got referees who are there to look at it. Let them make the call and just move on and stop doing reviews and telling the fans we're going to just get it right when very often the review doesn't make it any clearer what the right call should be. But other than that, I think goalie interference is fine,

and I really, really, really don't want to go back to some of the stupid stuff we've done in the past that people occasionally suggest whenever some call goes against their favorite team and they suddenly think the whole system needs to be redone. By the way, I found my old article. Whatever season, so this is the 18, 19th season. McDavid was drawing, when I wrote it in mid-December, McDavid was drawing fewer penalties per 60 at five-on-five

than Dylan Hetherington, Freddie Godro, Tony DeAngelo, and William Carrier, 120th in penalties drawn per 60. The number one thing that we got around penalties is this league, we, and I'm kind of, I'm saying we in terms of fans and all of us, but specifically the media, we got to stop talking about penalties like they're supposed to be even. You know, like if a team goes out there and there's five penalties and they all go against one team, that team after the game shouldn't be like, well, we had to kill five penalties. We didn't get any power plays. They should be like, oh, we played crappy tonight. We were constantly.

We committed a lot of penalties, yes. Fowling because we were a step behind. And they don't do that in the NFL. Like in the NFL, they'll show during the game, like, you know, this team's got. Yeah, one team was completely undisciplined. Yeah, 120 yards of penalties and the other team hasn't taken any. And nobody goes, wow, the refs are really biased. They're not managing the game.

They go, oh, that team is being sloppy and it's costing them. And I wish we all talked about penalties like that because that would get you more calls on Connor McDavid, it would get you more call. You would open up the game at five on five because you wouldn't be sitting there going, I know, should I hook this guy? Hey, we took the last three penalties. We know we're not getting the next one. So, you know, I wish that would happen.

It's good stuff. All of our thoughts were around penalties, which was interesting, too. All right, real quick, because we've got to get out of here. Let's do a quick overrated, underrated, favorite, least favorite. Coming to America comes out this week. The sequel to Coming to America, the PG-13 sequel, so don't get your hopes up. Somebody wanted us to do Eddie Murphy movies. And we can probably roll through those real quick.

Overrated Eddie Murphy movie, Ryan Lambert. Coming to America. Wow, right out of the gate, huh? Yikes. Hmm. Why would you say that? You go, Greg. I'm scanning my list here.

It's because I think it's overrated. I think it's fine. I mean, that's fair enough. Yeah, I mean, I think it's great, but that's fine. Overrated for me 48 hours. I feel like it was of its time, and I feel like it was notable for the scene where Eddie goes into the country bar just because of how shocking and wonderful and new that scene was and the whole sort of like dynamic with him and Nick Nolte. But I revisited it a few years ago. I didn't, I wasn't crazy about it.

I think there are so many other better Eddie Murphy performances than 48 hours. So while it's a good movie, I think it's been overrated. I really hate to say it. I think I might be with Ryan on this one. I like coming to America as a kid, but again, like that was, I was right in that age group. Oh, this is so. And then I watched it again, not all that recently, but at some point many years later, and I didn't feel like it held up.

Underrated, there's only one answer. I mean, I'm sure we're all going to say it if you've seen the movie. The Adventures of Pluto and Ash, no. How dare you? It's obviously Bofinger. Like Bofinger rocks. Comedy classic. Very funny.

For those who haven't seen it, it's Eddie Murphy playing two roles. He plays a major action star who I think is kind of centered on not only himself but also Tom Cruise a little bit because he's mixed up in this like Scientology bit. And then he also plays a character, I won't give away the spoiler, but a character who looks exactly like that character. It's a Dave situation, a classic Dave. Yeah, yeah. And Steve Martin is a low-budget filmmaker who tries to film a movie around the Eddie Murphy star character without the Eddie Murphy star character knowing that he's in a movie because the movie needs a star in order for it to happen. It's fucking brilliant. It's a great Hollywood satire and everybody is great in the movie, including Heather Graham.

Heather Graham and Christine Bransky, too. Is that your underrated shot or do you have a different one? I'll go with that one. Okay. That works. favorite is tough favorite is tougher than I don't think so it's trading places right

well no because I'm a huge Beverly Hills cop fan yeah sure and I know that parts of that movie haven't aged well but speaking of trading places oh okay that too it's a really tough call for me I think for me I would have to go Beverly Hills cop

I just that movie was just like a moment in time. And just changed so many things. You know, started its own, you know, series of sequels, one good, one unfortunate.

And was one of the, a great action movie, too. I would go Beverly's cop over trading places, even though I acknowledged the undeniable greatness of trading places as a upper echelon elite comedy. Certainly Akroyd's finest as well, I think. I may draw.

Dr. Detroit. I may draw a flag on this, but I'm going with Roth. It was released in theater, so I'm counting in this movie. Speaking of not aging well. Definitely not, but one of the all-time, that and delirious, all-time legendary stand-up comedy, most influential specials ever. Yeah, even though it may or may not. You know, don't watch it with the kids or anyone else.

Maybe. Yeah. Least safer for me, obviously, is the party all the time video. No. Leastaber for me, you know, it's funny. There's a lot of horrible Eddie Murphy movies, just like terribly not funny. Oh, yeah. Ill-conceived.

What are you thinking? Congratulations on the paycheck Eddie Murphy movies. Without question. Between two for my least favorite. The first is vampire in Brooklyn. That was going to be mine, yeah. Absolutely horrible movie. And that's him at like the height of his powers coming.

Well, I guess that's not true because he's coming off over the Hills Cop three, not two, right? Yeah, it wasn't the height of his powers, but he co-wrote the movie and fucking West Craven directed it. Yeah, it's a blank check movie, for sure. Yeah. But then he comes back right after that with the 90 professor. So, like, people forget about what a disaster that was. But I'll go with the one that preceded it and started this mini slump. Beverly Hills Cop 3 is an abomination.

Can't say I've ever seen it, yeah. It is. I found out today somebody mentioned to me that it was actually filmed at the Great America theme park in San Jose, which I never got a chance to go to while I was living there because of COVID. and also because, you know, Disneyland's short drive away. But it is a PG-13 Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop movie. I mean, I think it's PG-13. If it's not, then it didn't push the R.

Oh, no, no, no, it is rated R. Oh, my God. It didn't even, it shouldn't have been. It was benign. But it's everybody going through the motions. It's a terrible movie. And it takes place at a theme park. He's trying to bust a counterfeit ring.

It's just terrible. It's just lifeless and bad. And if I could erase it from existence, I would do so. Sean? I'll go Adventures of Pluto Nash. It's a bad movie. Yeah, of course it is. It did just very bad.

Yeah, there's a lot of any movies that could be tied, let's say, for Dead Last. Let's put it that way. Adventures of Pluto Nash came out in, 2002. Okay. Sounds about right. So after you get past Shrek, which was like another high water moment for, for Eddie,

Dr. Doolittle 2, showtime, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I spy Daddy Daycare, the Haunted Mansion. And in the middle of these were like Shrek movies. My favorite Eddie Murphy movie release thing, though, without question was he's in Dreamgirls and everybody's like, oh my God, he's going to win an Oscar. He's going to be best supporting actor for Dreamgirls.

And then Norbert comes out and everybody's like, no, no, no, no. And it came out during the Oscar voting and there is a popular theory that Norbit killed Eddie Murphy's Oscar chances, which is just tremendous. Not unreasonable. That's Puck Soup for this week. Thanks to the boys for handling the mailbag as I was, tied up with some scheduling stuff during this cross-country move, thanks to the good people of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Moab, Utah for being so accommodating during our trip. You could read me

at ESPN. My column this week is about the effects that the revamped schedule is having on games and stuff. It's a really interesting look at it. And then coaches hot seat stuff on Friday. So check out all that stuff there. What about you, Ron? Yeah, check out Elite Prospects rinkside. We're doing all kinds of good stuff I mentioned earlier that I wrote about how Chicago is really only good against bad teams. And when they play good teams, they get obliterated, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. But, you know, people are talking about Patrick Kane for MVP. So, and then, yeah, there's other good stuff about Dylan Holloway for Edmonton, just scrolling down here.

Thatcher Demko. why the sabres are so bad this year. And these are all deep dives and stuff like that. So of interest to many hockey fans, I would think, and definitely all worth checking out. It's me, it's Dimitri Filipovich. It's Jay Fresh. It's Rachel Dory. It's Marinangas.

You can go down the list. A lot of talented writers. I don't want to leave anybody out, but I'm sure I have. So I apologize. You find me on The Athletic. This week I had a piece where I ranked every single mid-season coaching change of the cap era from worst to best. And later at the end of this week, I don't know if it's Thursday or Friday,

but I've got a piece that was suggested by a puck soup listener months ago, I think. But I finally got around to it, which was, could the 2016 World Cup Team North America beat a team today made up of everybody else? So McDavid Matthews McKinnon versus everybody else. who you got, and you can see that later this week. That rocks. I dig it. Real quick, hilarious that the Canadians fired their goalie coach during the game last night.

During the game. Yeah. Artem Zoom shot too good. They had to get them out of there. I mean, Carrie Prey is good luck with all that. And also, very awesome that Tonahasi Coates is going to write a Superman movie. We didn't mention that either. There's an endless number of possibilities that you could do with a Superman movie that haven't been explored.

Here's one that they should avoid. Don't kill him or make him evil. How about that for a chance? Okay. Have they done anything about his mom's name? Because I feel like that's a really interesting avenue. My best friend, Andy Stanger, has already – he's very excited on moving back east. He's already booked me for a date to drink beer and get a pizza and watch all four hours with a Snyder cut together.

So very excited for that. Hope you get your shots first. Oh, geez. You know, Ryan, we live in a society. Thanks to everybody for listening to Puck Soup. Check out the Patreon. Many good things there happening all the time, including bonus episodes and all that stuff. And we'll talk to you next week.

Bye. See you. Go-bye. Oh, both Two